Flora and Vegetation Index of the Kimberley Region, Western Australia

The Kimberley is one of the nine regions of Western Australia. It is located in the northern part of Western Australia, bordered on the west by the Indian Ocean, on the north by the Timor Sea, on the south by the Great Sandy and Tanami Deserts, and on the east by the Northern Territory.

This more arid geography to the south is mirrored in this FAPAR image: southern areas appear yellow, indicating low photosynthetic activity, while coastal areas appear green, thus showing a good vegetation index.

With regards to flora, much of the Kimberley is chiefly covered in open savanna woodland dominated by low bloodwood and boab trees with Darwin stringybark and Darwin woollybutt eucalypts in the wetter areas.

The red sandy soil of the Dampier Peninsula in the south is known for its characteristic pindan wooded grassland while in the more fertile areas like the Ord valley the trees are grasslands of Chrysopogon, Aristida, Dicanthium and Xerochloa (rice grass) in the wetter valleys.

The banks of the Ord, Fitzroy and other rivers are home to a greater variety of vegetation while in sheltered gorges of the high rainfall north there are patches of rainforest. There are also areas of mangrove in river estuaries where the coast is flatter.